Method of installment-payment accounting



A.' J. LUNDSTROM. METHOD 0F INSTALLMENT PAYMENT ACCOUNTING.

APPucATloN mso'AucLs. ma.

ANDREW a'. nuNns'rnotfr or nnooKLYN, NEW vonk, essIerNon To esoneri E.

cani-:Ann or New YORK, N. Y.

METHOD 0F INSTALLMENT-PAYMENT ACCOUNTING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 18, 1922.

Application filed August 3, 191,8. Serial No. 248,179.

T0 all fro/"tom t may concern:

Be it knovvn that l, ANDREW J. LUND- srnoia, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, city of New York, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful lmproveinents in Methods of Installment-Payment Accounting, of which the following is a specification. f

Coupon deposit books have now been very Widely adopted by banks for use in connection with special savings accounts commonly knovvn as Christmas,7 Vacatiom and Thrift clubs, and, recently, have been taken up by many banks and by various committees in charge of `Liberty loan subscriptions and are being used more generally and in larger and larger numbers on each succeeding-bond issue for the accounts of persons subscribing to bonds on various partial or installment payment plans.

` The coupons of each book are serially numbered and also bear -acommon account or book. number; and the usual practice is for the bank, as each book is issued, to open a ledger account with the depositor or subscriber on a ledger card or sheetV bearing a correspoi'iding account number. Then, as each deposit or payment is 'made 'to the issuing bank, the book is presented to the teller who removes the coupon paid and receipts therefor by suitably marking either the stub from which the coupon has been detached or the first of the remainingcoupons. The coupons thus paid and removed from different books are each day assorted numerically uccording to their account numbers, handed to a ledger clerk Who postsfrom them to their respective `ledger cards orsheets, and then filed either separately in envelopes bearing corresponding account numbers or, in perhaps the majority of cases,'all together in a package marked with the date of payment, the envelopes or packages being Vthereupon Yplaced in a vault Where the coupons can be found and referred toishould any question or dispute subsequently arise. In one case there are as many envelopesas'there are accounts, While in the other ycase the number of packageswill approximateto the number of banking days. n Y

For the Third Liberty loan a plan, known as the centralized plan, was adopted in several of the larger districts,`by lwhich installment payments on bond subscriptions could numbered ledger sheets.

coupon book or at any one of a large num- 'ber ofdesignated banks and stations Within the district. y According to this plan,each

`bank or station receiving payments ydaily lists the paid coupons on a remittance slip and sends the coupons, remittance slip, and a check for the total amount ofall coupons listed to the Federal reserve bank for .the district or other central station. At this central station, the packages received from the individual receiving agencies go rst to a cashiers clerk, who checks up each remittance With the total amount listed on the accompanying remittance slip. The remittance slips and coupons are then turned over to mailing clerks and the coupons are compared with the lists of numbers on the slips. The coupons are next sent to the asserting department Where they are sorted and arranged in order according to their account or book numbers. After this has been done thecoupons are turned over to a corps of ledger clerks, who post the payments represented by the coupons to the correspondingly And, finally, the coupons are handed in to the tiling department Where filing clerks distribute them in envelopes bearing corresponding account numbers. `When the payments are completed the ledger department so advices the bond department, and the bonds are either delivered by mail to or are called for by the subscribers. y y The object of my invention is to simplify and therebyto lessen the cost of the coupon book method of handling installment payment accounts; and this obiect I accomplish by the means and in the manner hereinafter set forth.

The invention consists, briefy stated, in

"providing books in which. each .coupon has `printed on the face thereof, in Aaddition tokindividual coupon (since such amountA plus the amount of that coupon will'equal the former total), and by further providing with each booka filing envelope or container Which is made of transparent u'iaterial or invsuch manner that one can read from outside the account number of a coupon placed therein and enough of the other matter printed on the face of the coupon as will show the total amount then paid in on the account by the holder ot the book. The lirst paid coupon detached from each book, after the coupons from all the dit- 'lerent books have been assorted, is filed tace outwardly in a separate liling envelope, and each succeeding coupon detached when paid from the same book is in turn tiled in the same container face outwardly on top of the coupon or coupons previously liled therein. These filing containers, which exhibit on their faces all the ydata required to give the exact condition or" each account, are used as substitutes for ledger cards and may be arranged and kept in numerical order in the same way in which such cards are tiled. I am thus able to eliminate entirely the ledger department heretofore required for handling these installment payment accounts and thereby to save the expense oi from o-ne to as many as one hundred ledger or posting clerks-a saving of fully $50,000 per annumv in the case of the central station of a large district, such as the district ot New York,

using the above described centralized plan for Liberty bond issues.

The invention will be 'fully understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in

which- Figure 1 is a perspective view Aof a tiling envelope embodying my invention, showing through the front thereoli'the tace ot the second of two paid and detached coupons on file therein. and Fig. 2 is a. plan or face -view of the third of the same series oi: coun pons paid and detached ready to be tiled;

Fig. 3, aperspective view of a modilied container, showing through an opening in the lace thereotV certain ot the data printed on Vto coupon 11, the second of two coupons tiled.

next succeeding `paid coupon detached 'from :the same book.

Referring to the drawings, the filing envelope 10 illustrated vin Fig. 1 is in its si1n plestA form, being merely a plain envelope container which is made of suitable transparent paper or other material and is left open along one side to receive the coupons. The printed matter on a paid and detached therein, is seen through what may be called the front of the envelope, which thus shows on its face, as here indicated, that Vthe sum of $1.00 has been paid on coupon No. 2 of .Thrift Club account C 11721 and that the total amount paid into this account is $2.00. The third coupon 12 from the same Thrift Club book is shown in Fig. 2, stamped as paid and detached, ready to be filed in theenvelope face outwardly on top, or in front, oft' coupon No. 2.

The filing envelope 13 illustrated in Fig. 3 is similarin form to that shown in Fig.` 1, but is made ot' non-transparent material and is provided with an opening 14, which may or may not be covered on the inside with a strip of transparent paper. The amounts and ligures 2.00 46.00 551 which appear within this opening are part of the-data printed, to register with the opening, on the coupon 15 last liled therein and represent respectively the amount of the coupon, the total amount of the preceding coupons from the same book, and the account number of the book; and they indicate at a glance to one ta- .miliar with the system that $48.00 (2.00

plus 46.00) has been paid in on account No. 551 in twenty-four installments of $2.00 each and that this last coupon, the one visible through the opening, is coupon No. 24. This envelope, besides having on its liront appropriately designated spaces in which to till in the number of the account withrwhich it is used and the name and address of the holder of the account, may be providedY with a tab 17 which, projecting above'the upper edge 'of the'envelope and aiiixed at one or another of several positions in the length thereof indicated lby the words Regular, 100

Delinquent, and Missing shows byits position (as here illustrated) kthat theV account is regular, or that thelhol'der is behind in his payments or (in theposition indicated by dotted lines) that some of the coupons are missing. An entire coupon 16, the next in the series stamped as paid and ready to be filed, is shown in Fig. 4. Y

As shown in Fig. 5, the liling envelope 1S is oi the expansible or bellows type and its lront isV provided with two openings 19 and 20 which respectively register with and through which are seen the coupon No'. 9 and the amount 955. andthe accountnumber 1,000,001 of the coupon 21 last led therein, thereby indicating, vas here' illustrated, that onsubscription No. 1,000,001 for the Third Liberty loan nine, payments of each, a total of $45., have been made; and

in Fig. (5 coupon No. 10 from the same'coui pon book, indicated by therei'erence 22,is.shown ready for ling. i

vHaving explained the principleol my inventionandillustrated and described in different forms practical means for carrying. it into etlect, what I claim as new, :and de- Sire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The method of installment payment accounting Which 4comprises providing both a series of coupons each having printed Aon'its number face data from which can be determined the number of the individual coupon in the series, the amount thereof, and the total amount of the preceding coupons in the series, and a tiling container adapted to receive the entire series of coupons and to display through the front thereof the said printed data on a coupon filedV therein and then as each coupon is paid and surrendered filing the same Without posting or other entry face outwardly in the container in front of the coupons previously led therein.

2. The method of installment payment accounting Without ledger or other posting which comprises providing both a series of installment payment coupons each having on its tace printed data indicatingt'he series of the coupon, the number of the individual coupon in such series, the amount of the individual coupon, and the total amount of the coupons in the series to and including the individual coupon and a filing container adapted to receive the entire series of coupons and to display through the front thereof suliicient of the data printed on each coupon as placed therein to identify the coupon and thetotal amount paid on the series of coupons to and including such coupon solely by filing each coupon as paid face outwardly in the container in front of the earlier coupons of the series previously paid and filed therein.

ANDREW J. LUN'DsTRoM. 

